Tubular wave guide for transmitting circular-electric waves



Nov. 24, 1964 H, LARSEN ETAL 3,153,824

TUBULAR WAVE GUIDE FOR TRANSMITTING CIRCULAR-ELECTRIC WAVES Filed March 25, 1958 United States Patent Ofi ice 3,l58,824 ?atented Nov. 24, 1964 Qerrnan a corporation Iviar. 25, 1953, Ser. No. 723,723 Claims priority, eradication Germany, T, 1957, S 52,877 3 Claims. Cl. 333-35) Our invention relates to tubular wave guides for transmittlng electromagnetic microwaves generally of the transverse circular-electric mode.

lodern developments, tending toward generating and propagating electromagnetic waves at progressively higher frequencies, have placed increasing emphasis upon the use of hollow pipe guides for transmitting the microwaves as carriers of signals. Particular attention in this respect is being given to the so-called Ti -type tubular wave guides of circular or approxhn tely circular cross section, because waves of the T5 or T16 mode that is, waves of a transverse and essentially circular-electric field configuration possess the peculiar property, differing from that of other wave modes, that their attenuation decreases with increasing frequency. For that reason, the TE waves, at lrilomegacycle frequenciesalready in use to da are particularly suitable for transmitting signals over reat distances with only slight attenuation.

A trouble-free tr nsrnission of "IB waves, however, encounters dificulti s mainly due to the fact that the TE mode is unsta le. Slight discontinuities or other irregularities'in the tubular wave guide may sutlice to cause spliiring or" the TE wave into other Wave modes. Particularly detrimental in this rescect is a split-cit" TM wave, i.e. the fundament l transverse circular-magnetic wave. This is because the Tit Z wave has the same propagation constant as the TE wave so that the two wave modes are strongly coupled with each other, with the wave energy to be transmitted oscillating between the TM wave and the T5 wave as energy carrier. For that reason, particular ex edients and means are needed for mi... Zing the occurrence and propagation of a TM wave in a Wave guide intended for transmitting T5 waves.

it is known for this purpose to compose the tubular wave guide of serially aligned rings or of a wire formed as a helix. It has further been proposed to for; l a single or multiple-turn helix from fiat strins wound on edge. In all such designs of "Hi guides there occurrnarrow arn iular or helical slots between the between the turns of the wire helix.

of such slots in the tubular wall is toin the guide a phase constant greatly depa from that of the T13 wave, thus impeding the occu of the detrimental TM wave and minimizing its cougling with the TE wave. It is also known to olace rials, consisting of dielectric substances of great loss angle or dissipation, into or above t e slots of the tubular well. Thus greatly increases the attenuation of the "EM wave relative to that of the T13 wave. As a consequence, and

The main function give the Til i wave A. we atel n-h ii.

aside from th further reduced coupling between Tit i *l 'or' general subject matter and terminology, reference may be had to George G. Southworth, Principles and Applu cations of Wave Guide Transmissions, published 1950 by D.

Van Nostrand Company, Inc., New York, pages 119 and.

following.

individual rings or propagated through the guide.*-

above-mentioned tubular Wave guides for transmitting microwaves of the transverse circular-electric mode, particularly TE waves, whose tube Wall has circular or helical slots covered toward the outside by a dielectri damping layer or" high dissipation; and it is an object of our invention to further improve the damning eifect of the closed slots relative to the detrimental TM Waves.

it appears desirable, in general, to make the damping layer from a material of largest possible loss angle in order to keep the attenuation ratio of the detrimental TM waves to the TE Wave as great as possible. According to experience, however, greatly dissipative dielectric masses also have a relatively high dielectric constant so that appreciable reflection occurs at the boundary face between the medium in the hollow guide space, generally air, and the damping layer that closes the slots. As a result, a large percentage of the waves excited at the slot openings by a TE Wave and penetrating into the slots, is reflected at the boundary face into the slots or into the hollow transmission space. Hence only a slight proportion of these Waves penetrates into the damping layer to be absorbed therein. It is, therefore, a more specific object of our invention to devise a hollow-pipe wave guide in which the proportion of the wave excited at the slot openings by the TE waves and entering into the damping layer is considerably increased.

To this end, in accordance with a feature of our invention, we provide beneath the exterior damping layer one or more dielectric intermediate layer whose (complex or real) dielectric constants are graduated between the dielectric constant of the medium, particularly air, in the hollow transmission space of the tubular guide, on the one hand, and the dielectric constant of the out r darn, ing layer on the other hand.

According to a further, more specific, feature of our invention, the above-mentioned intermediate damping layers consist preferably of dielectric foam material whose degree of foam iormation is chosen toobtain the abovementioned graduated value of the dielectric constant together with the desired dissipating property.

The invention will be further explained with reference to the drawing, in which EEG. 1 shows a longitudinal section through a portion of a circular Wave guide according to the invention;

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of a wa e guide according to the invention also in longitudinal section through part of the guide; and

FIG. 3 is explanatory and relates to the layer arrangement in a microwave guide-according to the invention.

In the embodiment according to FIG. 1, the tubular wave guide which encloses the air-filled transmission space proper, is composed of short and relatively thin annular metal pieces 1 of circular or approximately circular cross section. The individual tube pieces 1 are slightly spaced from each other so as to form narrow circular slots 2 whose longitudinal length in the chosen embodiment is shorter than the corresponding length of the tube pieces 1. The slots 2 are closed toward the outside by an outer damping layer 3 which, in the illustrated example, is formed as a closed sheath tightly enclosing the wave guide proper. Located bet. een the outer damping layer 3 and the tubular wave guide is an intermediate dielectric layer 4, also forming a tube, whose dielectric constant has a value between the dielectric constant of the transmission medium and the dielectric constant of the outer damping layer 3. i

In the TE Wave guide illustrated in FIG. 2, the guide proper is composed of individual fiat ring-shaped metal" discs 5 which are slightl spaced from each other in the longitudinal direction. .ln such a design of a wave guide,

and as shown, the slots between the ring-shaped discs w m M considered that the waves entering :the slots are transverse waves, the electrical aswell as the magnetical field vector extending transverse to the propagating direction,

that is, perpendicular to the radial extent of the slots and hence parallel to the boundary faces between the indivi ual media of stepwise different dielectric constants respectively. Based upon the condition that the transversal electric and the transversal magnetic field vectors are continuous at the boundary faces, an equation can be set up for the reflection coefidcient which indicates which proportion of the waves entering into the slots is reflected back into the hollow transmission space. In this equation high loss angle. Located beneath this layer is an interf for the reflection coeiiicient, the dielectric constants and I mediate layer suflices to obtain, freedom from reflection for a given frequency. v

This will be shown presently on the basis of the fundamental layer arrangement illustrated in FIG. 3.

Denoted in FIGS. 3 by e e and 6 are three mutually adjacent media of respectively Cllfifiififit dielectric constants, the terms sun and 6 also denoting the corre sponding relative dielectric constants of these media. .In the TE wave guides, the medium 6 and the medium 6 correspond to the medium of the hollow 'tl'ai'lSIlfllSSlOIl space and to the outer clamping layer respectively. Ee-l tween these two there is located, according to the invendielectricconstant e and the thickness d In accordance with practical conditions, assume that the medium of the transmission space 6 be air, so that :1; and further that. the damping layer 6 be sufiif ciently thick and sufficiently dissipative to make all waves, penetrating into the layer, decay .to Zero after passing v through a certain distance, so that no reflected waves can occur in the :outerda'mpinglayer. Denoted by the arrow" A is the transverse wave impinging upon the intermediate layer sgfl om the hollow. transmission space, the length of arrow Aindicating theamplitude of this wave. The wave reflected back-into the transmission space is denoted by thearrow rA, the termr also denoting the reflection coefii- 'cient. q

, fleeting condition of such nature that the Wavesthat travel .tion, the dielectric intermediate layer having a suitable The reflection becomes equal to zero when the enumerator is equal to zero. This is the case when the following complex equation is satisfied: r

For the case of the intermediate layer 6 having low losses, so that 6 :6 is real in the mathematical sense, one obtains-by introducing the complex value for e =e '(lj tan 5 and by separating the real term from the imaginary term two real-term equations from which =e and 45 can be determined for a given value of 2 This can be done graphically, for instance. When the iump from 5 :1 to 6 is very large so that, under the above assumption that 6 is a real term, it may be found that the resulting value of 52 53 is not realizable technically. in such case, however, there are two other possibilities of obtaining complete freedom from reflection.

One or these possibilities is the provision of further interinediate layers of respective graduated values of the respective dielectric constants, whose calculations can he carried out by a recursion method. This can be done to such an extent that, ultimately, the dielectric constant having the value 61 gradually and continuously merges with the value 6 Such a continuous passing from one to the other limit value has the advantage of Wide-band matching but is diiiicult to carry out'in practice. For that reason, the other possibility for reflection-free matching for a given frequency is preferable.

to possess losses It now the complex term for the dielectric constant e =s '(lj tan 6 is introduced into the Equation 2 then the segregation into real and iniagi-, nary terms again results in two real-term equations in which now three magnitures, namely 6 tan fi and d occur as the determining quantities. The value of'oneof within the laminated medium in the reverse direction act to compensate, at the boundary between themedium space.

1 H1415, Consistiof conducting metal, preferably'copper.

The outer damping layer 3 or "7 maybe made, for. in-' stance, of ethoxilene resin with admixed graphite; and

Onthe foregoin'ggassumption, the'calculation results in g,

the following equation for the reflection coefl'icient r:

ii -via J wel -(ye-oa tee-m the intermediate layers 4, 3 arepreterably made of polyst-yrol-foarn. V The invention further'withinthe scopeot the-inventionto give the dielectric layersan. arrangement ditferentffrom that illus trated. For example, inthe embodimentishown iniFlG.

1 the dielectric intermediate layer 4 may partly: or en tirely be located within the slots 2; Conversely, in the. I embodiment according. to FIG. '2, it is not'necessary to have the dielectric layersfi'and acompletely fill the 'slots. For example, only the dielectric intermediate layer 3 may be-located within the slots, whereaslthe' outer damping" l layer 7' may form -a closed? liose or' sheath whichrsurrounds'thehollo'w conductor formed bythe rings 5: The V g This other possiblllu 'figfilll resides in the provision of only one inter mediate layer 6 which, however, is'permitted inthis case-f V I 'crowave guides according toith'e invention, "the guide structures proper, denoted iii-FIGS. 1 and 2 by;

is'not limited to the illustrated e1nbodi- .rnent's. It may beuse'd with the same-resultin conned tion with TE Wave guides in which-the slots a I'eifIlCt circular as'in FIGS. 1 and 2 but e'xtendlhelically. 1 ltlis' cross section of the tubular wave guide need not be accurately circular. In certain cases it may be preferable to give the guide an only approximately circular, for instance elliptic, shape.

Such and other modifications will be obvious to those skilled in the art upon a study of this disclosure, and it will therefore be understood that the invention may be embodied in microwave, guide structures other than those particularly described herein, without de arting from the essential features of our invention and within the scope of the claims annexed hereto.

We claim:

1. Tubular wave guide for transmitting electromagnetic waves of the transverse circular-electric mode, particularly TE waves, comprising peripheral portions jointly constituting an elongated tubular guide structure having a hollow and air-filled transmission space of round cross section, the cross-sections of said portions defined by a plane passing through the longitudinal axis of the wave guide being substantially rectangular and forming peripheral slots between each other, the tube wall of said guide structure being interrupted by said slots, an outer damping layer of dielectric material situated in the outer portions of said slots and having high Wave-energy dissipation compared with said tubular structure, an intermediate dielectric layer situated in said slots inwardly of said damping layer and located between said outer layer and said space, said intermediate layer having a dielectric constant graduated between those of said outer layer and of said air in said transmission space respectively.

2. In a tubular wave guide according to claim 1, said intermediate layer means consisting of dielectric foam material.

3. In a tubular wave guide according to claim 1, said tubular guide structure comprising a multiplicity of coaxially aligned flat metal rings axially spaced from each other to form said slots and having a radial width larger than their axial thickness, and said intermediate layer means being located in said slots between said rings.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,465,719 Fernsler Mar. 29, 1949 2,511,610 Wheeler June 13, 1950 2,538,771 Feenberg Jan. 23, 1951 2,557,261 Collard June 19, 1951 2,779,006 Albersheim Jan. 22, 1957 2,848,696 Miller Aug. 19, 1958 

1. TUBULAR WAVE GUIDE FOR TRANSMITTING ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES OF THE TRANSVERSE CIRCULAR-ELECTRIC MODE, PARTICULARLY TE01 WAVES, COMPRISING PERIPHERAL PORTIONS JOINTLY CONSTITUTING AN ELONGATED TUBULAR GUIDE STRUCTURE HAVING A HOLLOW AND AIR-FILLED TRANSMISSION SPACE OF ROUND CROSS SECTION, THE CROSS-SECTIONS OF SAID PORTIONS DEFINED BY A PLANE PASSING THROUGH THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OF THE WAVE GUIDE BEING SUBSTANTIALLY RECTANGULAR AND FORMING PERIPHERAL SLOTS BETWEEN EACH OTHER, THE TUBE WALL OF SAID GUIDE STRUCTURE BEING INTERRUPTED BY SAID SLOTS, AN OUTER DAMPING LAYER OF DIELECTRIC MATERIAL SITUATED IN THE OUTER PORTIONS OF SAID SLOTS AND HAVING HIGH WAVE-ENERGY DISSIPATION COMPARED WITH SAID TUBULAR STRUCTURE, AN INTERMEDIATE DIELECTRIC LAYER SITUATED IN SAID SLOTS INWARDLY OF SAID DAMPING LAYER AND LOCATED BETWEEN SAID OUTER LAYER AND SAID SPACE, SAID INTERMEDIATE LAYER HAVING A DIELECTRIC CONSTANT GRADUATED BETWEEN THOSE OF SAID OUTER LAYER AND OF SAID AIR IN SAID TRANSMISSION SPACE RESPECTIVELY. 